Decoted to Civil Rights in Timothy B. Tyson's Book, Blood Done Sign My Name

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resolutely responds to eight clergymen who question his methods of protest against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Specifically, in paragraphs 12-14, Dr. King explains why his protests are indeed being done in a timely manner to obtain the “constitutional and God-given rights” (A Portable Anthology, page 207) that Africans have been restricted of for over 340 years. Dr. King’s argument, combined with his strategic use of rhetorical devices to enhance it, helps create a palpable feeling of understanding that captivates the audience into seeing America through his vision.

Timothy B. Tyson, born 1959, had a unique childhood as the son of a Methodist minister who supported the civil rights movement. He accepted his parents’ liberal attitude, and struggled to reconcile it with the society around him – that of white supremacy and black oppression. Later, he attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Emory University for his BA, and returned to Duke University to earn his PhD in history. He began his teaching career with US History while attending Duke, then switched to Afro-American Studies in 1994. Based on Tyson’s parenting and field of study, it can be expected to be a solid narrative that, while containing signs of white privilege, gives insight into how people can rise from oppression.

The American Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and 1960s generated massive international following and controversy, which made the movement one of the most important in U.S. history. The movement’s legacy can still be felt today, with the positive aspects, such as voting rights to African Americans and wide spread desegregation of public facilities, still being felt in the United States, and in many similar models across the globe. Although there were many “battlegrounds” where civil issues were debated, many people who know of the movement today would argue that the movement’s heart was rooted in the Deep South, ironically where it could be argued that the mentality of people living in the area at the time were the most violently opposed to such civil rights. In contrast, those who championed the Civil Rights Movement chose the tactic of nonviolence, at least at first, as a tool to dismantle racial segregation, discrimination, and inequality. They followed models that Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists had commissioned, using principles of nonviolence and passive resistance. Civil rights leaders had understood that segregationists would do anything to maintain their power over blacks. So, in consequence, they believed some changes might be made if enough people outside the

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore’s book Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950 shows the Civil Rights movement in the same light as those writers like Jacquelyn Dowd Hall who believed in “The Long Movement.” Gilmore sets out to prove that much more time and aspects went into the Civil Rights Era and that it did not just start at the time of Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights acts of the nineteen sixties. The book adhered to the ideology of “The Long movement” aspects of the civil rights era during its earlier times. However it also differs by displaying the more unorthodox, often unseen origins of the movement in Communism, labor, and fascism. She also shows that Black civil rights is not a problem faced by many

Despite nearly one hundred years passing since the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern States were still faced with the most distinct forms of racism. The so-called “Jim Crow” laws that were present in United States at the time, served to segregate blacks and whites from all aspects of public life, including schools, public transport and juries. Often faced with extreme right-wing terrorist groups such as the white supremacist Klu Klux Klan, many among the African American community chose to live in a society of oppression that to actively campaign for equal rights for all humans regardless of the colour of their skin. It wasn’t until the 1950’s and 60’s that the people attempted to challenge the established order by engaging in influential protest movements with the help of key activist groups and their leaders. In particular, one key example of a powerful protest campaign was that which occurred in 1965 in Selma, a small town in Alabama. Here, the African American community united in an effort to ensure that all citizens were equal before the law in regards to their ability to register to vote. Their work in banding together and marching from Selma to the state capital Montgomery, was vastly important to both the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, as well as the assurance of the Black vote within the United States. Consequently, this essay seeks to emphasize just how influential this act of protest was to the movement as a whole, whilst analysing the

Whites didn’t just open the door up and say, ‘Yall come in, integration done come.’ ‘It didn’t happen that way in Oxford. Somebody was bruised and kicked and knocked around-you better believe it’”. The social revolution of the 1960s changed America in ways that will be debated for a long time to come. Legacies both positive and negative were a part of that revolution, along with a few stirring controversies held over. Stories of heroic acts of protest, sweeping reforms, and unresolved crimes remain with people even today. In Oxford, it seemed that the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement had accomplished almost nothing, for white Oxford had closed the gate against reform. In the book, “Blood Done Sign My Name “, Tyson telling a story where an impassioned sense of justice is denied. Throughout the book Tyson accomplished three things he gave his personal story of what it was like to grow up in the south, to look at the investigation of a brutal crime where new evidence is brought forth, then he talks about the history of the Civil Right era especially in Oxford where the murder of Henry Marrow ignited the flame among the black community.

When we examine the various approaches for the Civil Rights Movement that are discussed in Blood Done Sign My Name we find that there is no one clear answer as to which is more affective, because it was the combination of all three: radical, liberal, and conservative that finally pushed some of what the Civil Rights Movement strived for. No approach on its own was able to do anything, whether it was the nonviolent marches and demonstrations which were not able to grab the attention of the white power structure, or the racially driven violence which simply terrified whites, and which most likely would have done nothing were it not paired with the nonviolent demonstrations as well.

The civil rights movement of the sixties is one of the most controversial times of the last century. Many, if not all, who lived through that time, and the generations following were enormously impacted. At the time passions ran so high that violence at peaceful

White supremacy was a major issue in Southern America during the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. Though not completely focusing on that fact, Timothy Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name, does a elaborately explain the effects and repercussions of White Supremacy. Timothy Tyson was just a young boy during the beginning stages of the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s. Timothy lived with his mother, a schoolteacher, his father, a Methodist minister, one brother, and two sisters in a rural North Carolina town by the name of Oxford. Timothy’s father, Vernon Tyson, was what he called an “Eleanor Roosevelt liberal” and was a prominent figure in Tyson’s life. Tyson is trying to prove that a White, Southern man in rural North Carolina can share

In the exceptional historical autobiography Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy Tyson, a University of Wisconsin professor of African-American studies and a man who experienced the race relations in his Southern hometown, introduces the death of Henry Marrow and the events that would take toll afterwards. The murder of the young black veteran in 1970 would widen the racial gap in Oxford, North Carolina, and ignite a flame within the city. Tyson portrays the details of this drama and the events that occur afterward through multiple perspectives, which involve his younger 10-year-old self, his Methodist pastor father, budding black activist Ben Chavis, and one of the murderers of Henry Marrow. A well-written book that provides personal, historical

Throughout the 1960’s, the widespread movement for African American civil rights had transformed in terms of its goals and strategies. The campaign had intensified in this decade, characterized by greater demands and more aggressive efforts. Although the support of the Civil Rights movement was relatively constant, the goals of the movement became more high-reaching and specific, and its strategies became less compromising. African Americans’ struggle for equality during the 1960’s was a relentless movement that used change for progress. In essence, the transformation of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1960’s forwarded the evolution of America into a nation of civil equality and freedom.

This book makes clear that the struggle for racial equality was nationwide and not just isolated to certain geographical locations. A common misconception about the civil rights movement is that blatant racism was a problem only encountered in the Deep South. However, Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour does a great job of clarifying this misconception and showing the many elements of the struggle for justice that blacks from coast to coast experienced.

The black freedom struggle has not yet come to an end – there are still prejudiced and racist radicals that try to negotiate white supremacy and dominance in order to prevent the blacks from their long wait for equality. Consequently, the movement has progressed very sluggishly in the past few centuries. Nevertheless, the campaign for equal rights has led to the triumph over slavery and has led to the accrual of suffrage rights. However, this is still not enough, not after centuries of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Oftentimes, there is still no justice in court houses, especially when black people are accused and convicted, even for the simplest of crimes – as compared to the white and powerful who are charged for heinous misconducts and get away scratch free. Hence, throughout the period of the Blacks’ long fight for freedom and equality, several Black intellectuals have come front with ideas that could administer better treatment for their people. A good strategy to encourage the black populace to fight for their freedom and their rights is by inverting popular ideas so that there is a clear distinction between the reasonable and unreasonable notions of equality and justice. Thus, it was not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and

The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power movement were two monumental movements advocating for the rights, liberties, and equalities of African Americans in the 1960’s. While both had similar interests and long term goals for African Americans, these movements, their leaders, actions and influences were vastly different than one another. The Civil Rights Movement which largely credits their accomplishments to the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr based and grounded itself on moral principles that were distinguished by the importance of non-violence (HistoryNet). The Black Power Movement aligned itself and defined its actions by leader, Malcom X. Malcom X, like Dr. King, pushed for the rights of African Americans and drew a wide following. However, he differed from Dr. King, in that he did not condemn violence, especially when he believed it was in self-defense, for him this was a justified action to fight against the oppression the African American faced by white supremacy (History.com). The stance on violence is the essential and most critical division of these two movements in their principles and actions. In addition, this dividing stance would result in differences in the way they were perceived by established society. Although, they would have differences with each other, in the end, this would not be enough to stop either from focusing on their long term goal of improving the rights, liberties, freedoms and equality of African Americans.